beyond the edge

Helping kids cope if Harry dies.........HAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG that's hilarious.

This could be devastating for some impressionable children who have grown up with the bespectacled boy wizard for the past 10 years.

GOD, what is with all this paranoia. Kids aren't stupid (well, some of them are - it must be hereditary). I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms when I was 5, and about half the people are dead by the end, the most sympathetic kingdom was destroyed and swallowed up by the most ruthless one. Even if The Three Kingdoms was classical Chinese literature, it still did deaths better than Harry Potter. And okay, it made me cry when my favourite people died, but traumatised? PFFFT.

And if they've "grown up" with Harry Potter "for the past 10 years", they're obviously NOT THAT YOUNG. GOD.

"I wouldn't want my kids to read it, and after all these years they die. They become so involved it becomes a little hard to take. I wouldn't want my 12-year-old to feel cheated, almost. I know they have to learn about a certain part of life but today's children grow up too fast."

DUDE, I so don't get this ridiculous American ideal of "protecting" their kids by not letting them even hear a breath of "bad things". Death is part of life; without death, life wouldn't be worth treasuring. Because there is an end, it makes the journey to that end all the more worthwhile.

Bridge to Terabithia was our reading book for year 6, when we were 11 or 12, and it was one of the best done deaths in children's literature. It was accidental, meaningless, abrupt, in-character, tragic, and its repercussions so elegantly played out. In year 6, I also read detailed narrative of the Knights of the Round Table, and don't tell me it wasn't sad when Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere died/went on the ship/whatever.

If young children are impressionable and follow examples, then it might even be better to let them acquaint with death through fiction, to watch how fictional characters deal with death, to understand the different ways a death can impact on other people, to know the different ways in which different people react to a death, and to understand for themselves how to deal with it should a similar situation come up. These are things no lengthy talks by parents can explain, and can only really be learned through contact, even if it's through proxy.

"Some children are going to be asking questions - What is life? What is death? And ... what magic happened and is he going to be rescued?"

WHAT THE HELL is so wrong with children asking probing questions? What's wrong with children facing difficult issues, facing loss and sadness? The shallowest people are those who have grown up in bliss. It's when people don't understand how terrible death can be that they cease to treasure life. Because they don't know or understand life's other side, they're irresponsible, immature, narrow-minded, and shallow. It's knowing and feeling and understanding what is bad that makes someone realise what they want or don't want to happen, it gives them a marker, helps them decide what they want to protect in life.

By 13, I've read Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles, Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (non-fantasy). Compared to Harry Potter, any one of the deaths in their books is an exercise in masterly writing.

As much as the next person, I hate it when my favourite characters die, but people die in real life, and if the author chooses to reflect that, I don't see what the bloody problem is.

......Checking back on my (defunct) wide-reading list...I first read Pratchett in 2000?!??!?! =0=;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Had no recollection. Well, it was Soul Music...maybe that's why ==;;

Anyway, I've always thought it was ridiculous how protective adults are of "sensitive issues". Children aren't stupid. Seeing fictional deaths early in life (although I'm sure it wasn't intentional by parents) didn't scar me, it didn't turn me into a homocidal criminal, and I don't feel all the more vulnerable because of this early exposure. I'm kinda glad that my first exposure was through historical fiction, where there were no magic and no fantastical means of resurrecting anyone. Death is final, so treasure the moments before it.

Video game violence, where killing is glorified, is a completely different story ==;

I agree...

...If only up to the bit where it started to sound like there is some thespian conspiracy to undermine the "lower class" by removing their "rights to good English"....

I have to say I'm on the pedantic side for English ==;; Though my skills have fade in the last 3 years due to overexposure to yummy scientific jargon, our uni's Honi Soit (especially last year's editors) has such atrocious proof-reading that I cannot feel at peace until I've dug out a red marker and circled all their mistakes ==;;;

And yesterday, while reading an international student's poster abstract on HIV, I ended up editing all the grammatical mistakes ==;;;;;; Well...it's not surprising that Asians tend to trip over where to put "the"s and where not, since the definite article¹ doesn't even exist in our language ==;

The editing ended in an argument over the word formidable ==; "Research to find an effective vaccine and treatment is both necessary and formidable." I swear that sounds weird. I don't know why, but unless research is qualified as a task or work or something...it just sounds odd to say "formidable research". Like. "Formidable lunch". Huh? Exactly.

And the guy kept insisting that it made sense in Chinese =___=;;;;



1. Did you know, "the" is also an adverb.

With the medicine interview coming up in a bit over 2 weeks, a lot of people are getting themselves enrolled in courses. MedPrep is one such, and claims on its website:

We gauge the measure of our success through the good fortunes of our students. While only 10 to 15% of GAMSAT examinees in the general population are accepted to medical school, approximately 70% of MedPrep students who sit the GAMSAT are admitted. On average, MedPrep can improve your chances by a factor of seven. You may wish to read the preceding sentence again.

The statistical bullshit of that paragraph just makes me gag. It's so bloody biased! Obviously it's not a random selection of GAMSAT examinees who enrol themselves into a course like that!! How can they just claim it increases your chances by a factor of 7 based on a non-random, non-controlled selected cohort?!?! ARGH. And I don't even study statistics!!!

I'm not saying it doesn't help, of course, but the claim is so bloody unscientific and pathetic that anyone who wants to attempt the GAMSAT would have enough stat knowledge to scoff at it.


Edit:
10% of GAMSAT examinees get into medicine. Only 0.01% of the general population get into medicine per year. Taking the GAMSAT increases your chance by 1000 fold!!!

5% of the world population eat tofu regularly. 90% of the Chinese population eat tofu regularly. Eating tofu increases your chance of being Chinese 20 fold!!

0.02% of the Australian population die as a result of cancer. 100% of the American population die as a result of being alive. Being American increases your chance of dying by 5000 fold!

=___=

Today I received this email from Paypal:

At PayPal we take protecting your financial information seriously. We recognize and respect your right to privacy when it comes to your personal financial information. Please attend to our request to our active consumers to protect them of online fraud and frequent rising scam attacks against our financial institution.

This letter was sent in concordation with our latest policy that requires each payment over $ 1,000.00 to be confirmed by the owner of PayPal account before concluding the transfer.

Product ID:

Sony Vaio BRAND NEW and boxed Notebook.
Item no. #532749201
Price : $ 1,399.00

Location : payment@securitytransaction.com


WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I have never ordered a notebook, I do NOT have money in Paypal, and heck, I have NEVER signed up with Paypal. Did some random bastard just sign up with my email account?

The email looks authentic, since it was sent from "transactions@paypal.com", and told me to check the transaction at paypal.com/etcetc.

Damn these people. ARGH.